by Richard Coble
Luke 19:1-10
“Jones’s point is that the hyperfocus on personal salvation has become synonymous with the entirety of Christian faith, and so we have neglected wider histories and social structures of sin.
In fact, focusing on personal conversion can work to maintain the status quo in church. It is often those already excluded, those already pushed to the margins by the church and the community who are told they must change and repent. It’s a lot easier to tell someone who doesn’t belong and troubles the status quo that they need to change. It’s much easier to make them the focus of an alter call than to ask why they don’t belong in the first place, in a community called in the name of love and grace. Instead of having that hard conversation, in these very same communities, Zacchaeus is pushed to the margins by the liturgy, the rhetoric, the alter calls of the church over and over.”
Watch the full GCPC service on 10/30/22 here
(Scripture and sermon begin at 26:15)